Friday, July 26, 2013

When Alex’s bandmates invite a girl
to sing lead, a battle of the sexes becomes a battle over something
unexpected. . . A girl tells her friend about hooking up with
longtime crush Fred, but his kisses are not what makes that night in
his car memorable. . . A therapy session with Doug might just make
Jason go insane again. . . Wallflower Aubrey hooks up with Gordon
after the cast party, which would be fine if he weren’t the most
forbidden fruit of them all…Savannah certainly doesn’t sound like
a convict’s name, so maybe hanging out with her isn’t all that
dangerous. Miki is committed to getting over Dex, yet she can’t get
him off her answering machine—or her doorstep. In between puffs of
cigarettes and attempts to smear lipstick on her face, Allie’s
grandmother dishes out advice that maybe Allie should take. . . And
finally, what’s a girl to do with Satan as both her boss and
father? Nine short stories pose the questions we obsess over whether
we’re growing up or all grown up: Who should I love? Am I doing the
right thing? Is there ever an end to heartbreak? In its second
volume, SUCKER continues to showcase the very best emerging talent in
young adult literature and give (some of) the answers to Life’s Big
Questions along the way.

Sucker will reopen the doors for Volume
3 submissions. One day ONLY, August 1, 2013. Find the guidelines
HERE.

How and why do
you write for teens? I've answered the question umpteen million
times, mostly asked by non-writing folk, the Muggles in my writerly
world.

The simplest way to
write for teens is to channel your inner-teenager. You don't have to
be a psychic. Grab a notebook and pick a quiet place. Maybe a park
bench, a blanket spread on the grass or on the beach. Clear your
mind, and conjure up your most vulnerable moments from your youth.

Remember the day at
school when you tripped running down the stairs, spilling your pile
of books? Recall the flushed cheeks, the profuse sweating, and the
racing heartbeat as you gathered your materials from the floor. What
about the chuckles, snorts, and eye rolling? Oh yeah, the memories
are flooding back, aren't they? Capture those moments, those
feelings, and raw emotions. Now, without judging, jot down everything
you feel, see, think, and hear. Continue to write until every single
thought about the incident is on paper.

Don't read it yet.

Extract another
memory. Maybe this time remember when you were dumped by your first
real love. Gosh, do you recall the anguish? Those devastating moments
when you knew you were just going to die. There, that's it. Write it
down. Don't leave anything out. Remember, no judging.

Toss your adult
self into timeout if you must.

Depending on the
story or character you're working on, you may want to stick to a
particular kind of memory, such as break-ups. Everything from your
past is at your disposal. It belongs to you. Use it.

Now, go back and
read, not judge, but read what you wrote. Highlight anything you may
use for characterization. There may be things you can use for one
character, and you can save the rest for another one in the future.
It works best for me if I draft after these sessions, keeping my
notebook close by so I may refer to it.

Another way you can
find your authentic teen voice is to hang out with teens or around
them. Teens may get creeped out when adults watch them, get too
close, or listen in on their conversations. I blame it on the killer
/ stalker movies they watch. I'm an alleged creeper, according to my
own teenaged daughters. You have to be sly. Consider yourself a
secret agent, given a dangerous assignment, and proceed with caution.

Choose a local
hangout. Order a pizza or coffee, break out your notebook (Look
busy... remember dangerous assignment), take notes, pay attention to
their body language, speech, and their interaction with others.

Write down
everything, whether you think it's useful or not. Pay special
attention to the quirky and unique, such as the way a boy blinks and
taps his fingers as if he's in a rock band when a girl is talking to
him. Is he trying to be cool or is he nervous? A girl clicks her
tongue and tosses her right hand in the air when she's speaking. Does
she have odd ticks or extreme animation? Keep watching. Does anyone
have annoying habits? Adorable traits? Check out their clothing. Take
it all in. Don't waste a single detail.

As for why I
write for teens, it's a bit more personal and there are no exercises
involved. I think the most obvious reason I write for teens is Young
Adult is my preferred genre to read. They say write what you read.
With each young adult book I read, my writing improves. My characters
develop depth. My plots thicken. Beginnings begin to rock. My
endings, well, I'm still mastering my endings. YA keeps me young,
takes me to fabulous places, and for some strange reason, I identify
with many young adult characters, which leads me into my next point.

Sometimes, I relate
to teens better than adults. There are times when I feel like a
teenager or when I act or speak like a teenager. Even at
forty-something, I've been known to abuse the words "like"
and "whatever". At times, I have a snarkish behavior my
fellow adult friends don't have.

I figured I
suffered from some weird Peter Pan theory, but then I began to use my
immaturity to my advantage. Being able to relate to my characters is
super important when writing for teens. When I wrote my short story
On the Edge of Postal (Sucker Literary Vol. 1, Jan. 2012), I
knew my main character Ashlynn like I know myself. I related to her
in a thousand ways. She was a mash-up of all my sisters and I, and
our dysfunctional childhood. I identified with her angst, her
sarcasm, and her explosive behavior.

If a writer fails
to relate to their character in at least some fashion, the character
may fall flat, appear one-dimensional, and unauthentic. We owe it to
our readers to make our characters relatable and someone they can
invest their time in.

My hows and whys
assist me when writing for teens. Whether or not they make sense to
others is a moot point.. I don't write to impress. I write to
connect, to reach out, shake one's core, and make my readers feel
something. In the end, it's about the reader's experience, not mine.

Thanks, Candi for the insights.

Candy Fite
writes everything from picture books to non-fiction, with a
passion for creating stories for teens. Between second drafting her
YA novel and shopping literary agents for her two picture books, she
is working on a non-fiction book about rose rustling. She is a
member of SCBWI and the Brenham Writers Group in Texas. When not
writing, she’s the busy mom of two teen girls, teaching her
students yoga, and traveling and speaking for her rose group. This is
her first YA publication. Candy Lynn Fite can be reached on Twitter
@candylynnfite or on her blog at http://www.cfitewrite.blogspot.com

4 comments:

Thank you, Martha, for hosting us on your blog today. Candi's piece about the how and why of writing YA is spot on and her piece in volume 1 is one of my favorites. . . sister relationships. Now that is one I can relate to.

Martha, you rock!!! Thank you so much for featuring not only this post, but SUCKER, too! Hannah and her staff at SUCKER are truly the best. :)

One note: this bio is from Sucker Vol 1, which included the old bio. Since then, I've went back to the original name spelling on my birth certificate with an "i". :) So Twitter is now @candilynnfite. If folks try to follow, candylynnfite is no longer. :D

Available on Kindle now!!!

Available Right Now!!

It’s 1983, Los Angles, and Trace Dellon, lead singer, knows exactly what he wants; the white heat of the spotlight. When his band, Black Light is offered a record deal, Trace grabs for it, eager to move up from their club gigs. He will do anything it takes to make it. Asia Heyes, bass player knows what he wants too. It’s not the fame or the adoration of fans and groupies. It’s Trace. It’s always been Trace. Though it’s been unspoken between them- his other lovers-his audience-push Asia aside. With the contract, comes Albrecht Christian into their lives. He is a man with everything but what he needs to live: the energy that runs just under Trace’s skin. But even Trace isn’t enough, and Albrecht finds himself starving When everything crashes with a bullet, they all learn the truth. Rock and roll, like magic requires both love and sacrifice. Then Black Light’s fragile trajectory to greatness really begins.

About Me

Mart Allard is a writer of Dark and Urban Fantasy fiction. She has published several short stories in places like Talebones and Not One Of Us. She is working on a neo-Victorian novel with airships and mad alchemists. Her first novel, The Black Light, is set to come out in May of this year.

She lives in a drafty old house in Flint Michigan, despite all the warnings and pleas of her friends. She has three cats and one roommate. She doesn't plan to add cats, but is not sure about roommates.